Looks like I missed last week’s Game Journal update and am late with this week’s!
Let’s see. I played my Alliance alt in WoW a little and did some PVPing on my main. PVP was getting a little tiring, but I’m looking forward to playing with William when he gets here tomorrow. I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: City Folk a bit. It’s an enjoyable, relaxing game. I caught some cool fish tonight actually.
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood has been seeing a lot of use on my DS lately. I feel like Bioware was dumbing everything down a bit. I wish secret characters were, you know, actually out of the way so they could feel special when obtained. Also, side-quests could be more than just “hey could you walk one screen away and fight a bad guy?” The dialog is pretty entertaining though! I think Sonic fans would really enjoy it. They actually did something pretty cool with the plot, but I’d rather not spoil it for anyone.
I tried a level of Sonic Unleashed tonight but got bored. My 360’s actually still powered on. I just switched inputs to my Wii to play City Folk. I keep eying Project Sylpheed too, thinking I should invest more time into learning it. There aren’t as many games today than there used to be that take a lot of time to learn. I feel like I never gave Project Sylpheed a fair chance.

I missed my Thursday deadline of my Game Journal again!
Let’s see. I bought Sonic Unleashed and have been playing that some. I’m still only a couple hours into it. The levels are pretty long. It’s been very enjoyable so far. The biggest improvement is that it’s no longer buggy. Sure, you clip through stuff sometimes after falling to your death, but the clipping no longer causes the death. Falling off a cliff and seeing Sonic clip through a tree isn’t game breaking like clipping through the ground was in Sonic 2006. The day levels are wonderful. They’re all about speed. The night levels remind me of Devil May Cry, complete with devil trigger “unleash” meter.
On the subject of Sonic, I started playing Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. I have to say, I’m very impressed. The art is very cool, the sound and music is great, and the battle system is fun. For the most part, it’s a menu driven battle system like classic Eastern RPGs. However, in order to block certain attacks or to perform POW moves (special moves), you have to tap repeatedly, hit certain spots in a certain order, or drag circles across the screen. This make the gameplay similar to Elite Beat Agents. What I really enjoy about this game though is the dialog and references to other Sonic material. I fought Swat Bots! I want to say I like the story, but so far the overarching story has been pretty simple. I just like meeting with G.U.N., not trusting Rouge, and seeing Tails act a little more independent.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in World of Warcraft. I’ve got a lot of achievements and did some old instances for achievement and gear for William. We’re 49 now and have stopped to PVP, but I already have all the PVP gear for my bracket and some 58 pieces too.
Titan Quest was on sale on Steam so I picked that up. It’s pretty fun. The game’s basically a Diablo 2 clone. The story isn’t as exciting, but the graphics are better, and (so far at least) it’s set in ancient Greece. Knowing the mythology makes it cooler.
I’m still working on the heavy weapons in Team Fortress 2. I got the first one! Two more to go! I also played Left 4 Dead a little, but only a level or two.
Animal Crossing: City Folk is still getting play. I missed one piece of the Harvest set =/ Now I’ll have to wait for Thanksgiving!
Speaking of Thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving day I played through Castle Crashers with my brother and cousin. It was a lot of fun! I played the heck out of it when it first came out and wasn’t sure I’d be able to go back to it so soon, but it was an awesome time. I think Castle Crashers has to be one of the best coop games I’ve ever played.

I think I missed last week’s update. You know, a lot happens in two weeks. I knew I played games, but when I first went to write this post, I couldn’t remember much. Well, I played a lot. I beat LittleBigPlanet, Gears of War 2, The Ship, and Azure Dreams. I’ve also been playing World of Warcraft, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Team Fortress 2, Audiosurf, and Thousand Arms.
The night I made my last Game Journal post I was able to finish LittleBigPlanet. I moved on to play some community games a bit but didn’t play too much. I wrote a full review of it here and on GameFAQs so I won’t go into more detail.
I bought Gears of War 2 soon after that and finished it after a couple days. It was really excellent. I had a lot of fun, and it showed some awesome things that fans of the first game should be excited about. I haven’t yet played co-op or horde mode yet (or the regular multiplayer, but I don’t really care about that). I’m looking forward to horde mode sometime soon and possibly attempting co-op on Insane mode with my roommate Collin.
I bought Eets on Steam because it was really, really cheap. It also wasn’t very good. Also, I got around to playing The Ship, which is a Source game in which you’re on a ship and are tasked with killing another player while avoiding getting killed yourself. It’s a first person shooter, but you have to find various weapons hidden on the ship. There are other items on the ship you have to find to take care of your various needs that are similar to the needs you have in The Sims. I haven’t yet played this multiplayer either, but the single player was very enjoyable although buggy.
I’ve been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 again. Hopefully the first Heavy weapon will be unlocked soon! I’m looking forward to getting his new weapons. I’m not sure why I didn’t put more time into this when the Heavy update was first released. I also picked up Wrath of the Lich King and have been spending some time gaining achievements and PVPing. We’ll start leveling soon (maybe).
Animal Crossing: City Folk also came out recently. It doesn’t have much new from the DS version, and I wish the camera would zoom out more. However, it did implement a few nice features such as being able to change tools without going to the inventory menu. All in all, I’m happy with the improvements even if they were minor. I played online with Gabby and Jon last night, which was fun. You still have to jump through friend code hoops to play online, but it wasn’t too bad. We didn’t get the Wii Speak microphone, but USB keyboards worked wonderfully. There’s an on-screen keyboard you can use with the Wiimote, and I was afraid that using a USB keyboard would still make the on-screen one appear. It doesn’t. Just a small chat line appears at the bottom. I’m very impressed that Nintendo was able to implement this! I’ve never used a keyboard in a console game before except to name characters in RPGs, save files, and assorted things in Viva Piñata, all on the 360. Way to go Nintendo for doing something that consoles needed before the other consoles! Of course, I know some other games have supported keyboards; I’ve just never played any. Also, I guess most FPS games on the other consoles are too involved to have a player put down the controller to use a keyboard.
Lastly, I finally finished Azure Dreams (a PS1 game) on my PSP. I’ve been meaning to finish this since middle school! It was pretty fulfilling. Azure Dreams always reminds me of another RPG I played around the same time that I never finished called Thousand Arms. In it, you date girls to increase your intimacy with them and then use that intimacy to forge stronger weapons. I put that on my PSP last night and just started. Hopefully I can finish that too!

I wasn’t going to buy Gears of War 2 because I was trying to cut back on games purchases, but then it came out today and I couldn’t resist the bromance!
Okay I need to go play games now.

This past week I’ve played a substantial amount of Rock Band 2. We beat it last night actually. I also bought all the Weezer and Oasis tracks for gem and all the Who tracks for myself. I need to pick up Boston, Rush, and The Police also. I put some more time into LittleBigPlanet a little. I’m on the last level of the game and should be able to beat it tonight. I started playing Azure Dreams a tiny bit more and have been playing Ninjatown in bed and when I’m out. It’s a surprisingly fun little tower defense game for the DS. I don’t think I’d really recommend purchasing it new, but it is fun to play.
I also got back into Bioshock a little. It’s hard to play because it really stresses me out. However, I did manage to kill Dr. Steinman. I think it was a really cool scene. The fight itself wasn’t that exciting because I’m playing on easy. Still, I chose that because I’m not looking for challenging gameplay; I’m looking for the mood the game presents and to a lesser extent, the plot and message the game tries to portray (if it does indeed have a message, which I suspect it will).
Lastly, I played a small amount of Wario Land 2 and Professor Layton and the Curious Village this week. Good times!

I’m late with my weekly game recap again, hm?
I bought LittleBigPlanet when it launched last week. It’s been pretty fun so far. The difficulty spiked at one point, but I think it was my fault. It’s a side-scrolling platformer with three levels of depth. There have been some issues with the game guessing the depth in which I want to be and causing me pain. I’ve also been squished and killed by simply walking under an object. I think if the game lets you just press right and walk under an object, it shouldn’t kill you. These are minor issues usually, but I notice them even more in heavily hyped games.
On Halloween night I got a new mask and some candy in Guild Wars by participating in the Mad King Thorn events again. I also played World of Warcraft a little just to trick-or-treat and visit the candy jack-o-lanterns in the inns of Kalimdor. I did manage to get that achievement! I haven’t yet been able to succeed at the quest in which you put out fires.
I played Zombies Ate My Neighbors a little, but it wasn’t satisfying my craving for Halloween games. I managed to get half way through level two, which is much farther than I’ve ever been. Wip3out Pure has been fun. I play it every now and then just for small amounts of time. It’s pretty fun. Lastly, today I played a little Azure Dreams again for the first time in months. It’s fun in a monotonous way. Maybe I’ll beat it someday.

I didn’t make my goal of posting by Thursday in my Game Journal. I bought Rock Band 2 when the bundle was released and have been enjoying that. I’ve mostly been playing with gemma and Andy. My brother joined for a bit the first day, and I’ve played Duncan, Collin, and Vincent a little. I made a really slutty girl called Kitty Kat. My brother made Sluts McGee, lol. I also rented Rock Band 1 and paid the $5 to rip the music for RB2. It gives a pretty nice selection of songs!
That’s about all I’ve been doing. I started the tutorial for Sim City 4 but got bored, and I’ve played Frontlines: Fuel of War a little. I’m looking forward to Little Big Planet later today though!

I haven’t played anything new this week. I played some more Kirby Super Star Ultra, finally beating The Arena, which has you fight 20 bosses in a row. Now I’m stuck in the mode called Helper to Hero. In this mode you play as one of Kirby’s helpers, going against 13 bosses in a row plus a secret boss I wasn’t expecting 🙁 I also logged into WoW this week to check out achievements and the new pet system. It was interesting, but I didn’t stay logged in more than five minutes.

I played and beat Spore last Saturday. I also played a couple levels of Kirby Super Star Ultra this week.
Stupid school.

SelectButton had a thread about playing games in public, and I thought it was interesting. It was about feeling embarrassed or enjoying it, seeing other people playing, meeting new people, etc.
Original thread
I play both my DS and PSP in classes all the time. It depends on the class, but in a lot of classes I can pay attention and play at the same time pretty easily. Games that you can put down at any moment are the best to play.
While my girlfriend was at a salon recently some kid seemed really excited that my PSP was metallic blue and that I was playing sideways. I was playing Star Soldier.
In general, I feel fine playing on campus but awkward playing anywhere else. Also, I think playing the PSP is less embarrassing than the DS, although I still play the DS more.
One time I stood outside a GameStop using my DS for over a half hour. They were giving away Deoxys. I couldn’t find my copy of Pearl so I filled my R4 with about 20 copies so I could get a bunch of them. It took a long time to do that for every copy.
Two years ago at Anime Expo we had a lot of great Tetris DS matches. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had gaming. We also did a lot of Pictochatting during AX Idol that year. Last year no one was really playing Tetris. I only managed to find one person with The World Ends With You, but I eventually realized that I was playing the European version, which was why I couldn’t find more people. We Pictochatted during AX Idol again, but it wasn’t as fun. Maybe it was because the people were actually good. Someone did draw a pretty hilarious picture of this really talented black guy with an odd, short, pointed mohawk singing “Rain” from Cowboy Bebop. I also played Elite Beat Agents with my girlfriend and some guy behind me in line while waiting for David Hayter’s (voice of Snake) autograph.

Rain, originally uploaded by theuser.